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A collection of cutting-edge SF stories from one of the grand masters of science fiction, including:

Rule Golden
To protect the galaxy, Aza-Kra came from a world where violence and cruelty ceased to exist. To him, Earth was a jungle.

The Dying Man
In a century that holds the secret of immortality, Claire and Dio find love impossible – until Dio discovers he is mortal.

Natural State
AD 2064. Were the cities doomed? Were the plants and animals and people who lived outside more efficient than any machine that could be built? Alvah Gustad, actor and patriot, leaves New York for an unusual mission.

We call it a gismo.
That’s right, a gismo.

A bit difficult to describe. Like a cross, I suppose, without the top part. Sort of two arms on a stand.

What happens is this. You hang something on one arm. Anything at all. A watch, a bracelet, money, anything. I supposed you could hang a locomotive on, only it’s a bit heavy.

But anyway you hang something on and there on the opposite arm appears an exact replica. And I mean exact.

You can’t tell the difference.

So nobody need make anything any more. What you need you hang on the gismo. No work. No want. No starvation. No nothing.

When you’ve got a gismo, you’ve got everything.

A voice in your brain warning you away from that one drink too many, or the crime of violence, guiding your every move from birth to death – that’s the Analogue Machine, a terrifying and ingenious psychological device for compelling conformity. Analogue Men is an exploration of man and society written with dazzling ingenuity and plausibility.

Plague…or paradise?

2005 A.D. Six years have passed since the alien Symbionts invaded Sea Venture, Earth’s largest ocean habitat. Now, despite the government’s best attempts at quarantine, the Symbionts have spread all over the planet, infecting the bodies of both humans and animals – and slowly, subtly forcing mankind in new directions.

Once possessed by the Symbionts, men and women become smarter, wiser – or else they die. War and violence are punished by instant execution from within. A new era dawns, but there are those who would turn back the millennium, who will stop at nothing to prevent…A Reasonable World.

McNulty’s Disease has escaped the Sea Venture and is now epidemic on land. The disease kills only a few of its victims…but no one knows what long-term effects it has on those who survive. For the public’s safety, the U.S. government sets up a giant internment camp on the old CV herself, and attempts to find as many survivors as possible to keep safely on board the ship. Fortunately, Julie Prescott has a most resourceful and clever husband (he used to be a high-priced hired killer) who doesn’t want his wife locked up forever. So he sets himself up against the entire government bureaucracy – with remarkable results.

Sea Venture, CV for short, is the largest ocean-going vessel ever built by man. It is not a ship but a huge sea habitat housing a scientific research station, an entire city of two thousand permanent residents and a thousand passengers.

For some, CV is the vacation dream of a lifetime; for others, a vision of man’s conquest of the seas; for two men it becomes the arena for a deadly game of cat and mouse.

But for one, CV is something else: a place to stalk its next victim. It is not human, it is not even of Earthly origin. To be touched by it is deadly.

What important are the hopes and dreams, fears and schemes of the people of Sea Venture when they are threatened by a force that could destroy all of human civilization?

It seems a simple quest for a happy occasion: Sir James Eckert, the brave Dragon Knight, accompanies Sir Brian Neville-Smythe to the Holy Land to ask his beloved’s father for her hand.

But the Holy Land holds more than they bargained for. As the pair face pirates, sea giants, and the legendary Djinn, this ‘simple’ quest becomes the most dangerous odyssey the Dragon Knight has even undertaken. For the Djinn hold more power over good and evil than even the most powerful magicians – including the Dragon Knight himself . . .

Gordon R. Dickson continues his spectacular saga of a twentieth-century American transformed into a Dragon Knight – and transported into a fantastic medieval adventure.

After their final battle, legend tells us, Arthur and his knights went to Lyonesse, the land under the sea. Now Lyonesse is threatened by a resurgence of the Dark Powers, those mindless malevolent forces that struggle to stop the course of History.

And Jim Eckert – the Dragon Knight – and his friends are called upon to stop them.

Arthur and his knights are proud; too proud to easily accept help from Jim Eckert and his allies. But they will have help – from Jim in his dragon form, from knight-in-armour Sir Brian Neville-Smyth, from the brilliant archer Dafydd ap Hywel, and from one small hobgoblin.

The result is a wild ride: Arthurian fantasy adventure as only Gordon R. Dickson could tell it.

A collection containing two short stories (“Semper Fi” and “Baby, You Were Great”), seven poems, and autobiographical introductions.

DOMNEI: A COMEDY OF WOMAN-WORSHIP

The word “domnei” refers to the ritualised devotion that knights were required to display to ward their ladies in the medieval period. Cabell’s Domnei explores this concept in a rich, meditative look at femme fatale Melicent and the ultimately ruinous sparring her love inspires among her coterie of husbands, knights and suitors.

In The Dragon on the Border, Sir James, the Dragon Knight, faces his most terrifying challenge – the Hollow Men, spirits of the dead in empty suits of armour. Their weapons are all too real, and a slain Hollow Man can be resurrected within two days. As long as one of their unholy number endures, no Hollow Man can ever truly die. It’s a battle that could test any dragon. Not to mention a knight. Or an American. Or all three in one!

One of the tales of Jim Eckert, the young mathematician who travels to a parallel medieval world only to be transformed into a large but none too bright dragon named Gorbash. Now the Dragon Knight must confront the three disasters that lie in wait for any visitor to the English Middle ages: war, plague and Plantagenets

The Dragon Knight, faces three new challenges – a plague caused by an invasion of shape-changing goblins, the arrival of the quarrelsome and ambitious Plantagenet dynasty, and a full-scale human-versus-goblin war.

THE WIZARD KNIGHT springs from the myths, legends and literature of times past.
A teenager passes from Earth to a magical realm of seven worlds, where he is given a hero’s adult body and named Able. Though forced to act as a man, inside he is still a boy, even as he sets off to find his destined sword and become a knight.
In his quest he battles giants, meets gods, heroes and a sorceress (who repeatedly tries to seduce him), and serves the mercurial dragon king Arnthor in a was that could end everything.

‘Tis the season for treachery: The Earl of Somerset is throwing a lavish Christmas feast, a revel above all others to celebrate the holiday. But the Dark Powers have chosen this joyous time to launch a massive offensive. An army of land-hungry trolls has laid siege outside the Earl’s fortress, while a nest of venomous traitors waits to hatch its deadly plan from the inside.

Now Sir James, the brave Dragon Knight, must fight a battle unlike any he has ever known – a battle no man, knight or dragon can win. Not even if he is all three in one.

Gods! Dragons! Fairies! Frog Princess! Knights! and much more. John Grimes faces them all.

Lord Tedric of the Marshes, ex-Corpsman and interplanetary warrior, faces a crucial mission: to crush the threat of the Destructive Forces by capturing their agent on the Bioman sphere, the ruthless Black Knight Fra Villion

Tedric’s crew are bound together by the strong loyalty of outcasts: Yod Cartwright, ex-pirate; Juvi, a prostitute turned expert pilor; Ky-shan the exiled Wykzl; Wilson, the renegade robot; and Pal Galmain, brave but banished Knight of the noble order of Vemplars.

Tedric mjust warn the Bio,en that their castle is a gatewhile for the annihilation gathering in the grey depths of space, but who will believe the word of a barbarian against the lightning whipsword of Fra Villion?

In the year 2794, the greatest civilisation in Earth’s history, ravaged by over-population and lack of food, faces almost certain destruction. A handful of men and women struggle desperately to avert the coming holocaust, but they seem doomed to failure. And even if they succeed, Earth will never be the same again . . .

Come with us out of this dull, workaday world to Terra Magica, tha land beyond World’s Edge, where knights ride out on wonder quests, where beautiful princesses wait for rescue from sea serpents, where sky-high giants seek human morsels for their cookpots, and where a king may seek a champion to set aside his realm’s enchantment.Here again is Kesrick, knight of Dragonrouge, in combat against villainy. At his side stand a Scythian princess and a lost nobleman of Tartary. Here be wizards of good and wizards of evil; here be mighty giants and witches of utter meanness. Here be high fantasy from the golden pen of the Grand Master himself, Lin Carter!

Come with us out of this dull, workaday world to Terra Magica, the land beyond World’s Edge, where knights ride out on wonder quests, where beautiful princesses wait for rescue from sea serpents, where sky-high giants seek human morsels for their cookpots, and where a king may seek a champion to set aside his realm’s enchantment.Here again is Kesrick, knight of Dragonrouge, in combat against villainy. At his side stand a Scythian princess and a lost nobleman of Tartary. Here be wizards of good and wizards of evil; here be mighty giants and witches of utter meanness. Here be high fantasy from the golden pen of the Grand Master himself, Lin Carter!

The Knight boys are bad news – everyone in the neighbourhood knows it. But when Diesel make friends with Martin Knight, she wonders if maybe people aren’t right about them at all.

After Martin dies in a joyriding accident, Diesel is devastated. She finds herself spending more time with Martin’s brothers, becoming obsessed with making sure Martin finds rest somewhere he feels safe. Except, the past doesn’t seem to want to stay in the past, and Martin doesn’t seem to want to stay dead . . .

A spine-chilling teen horror from award-winning writer Gwyneth Jones under the pseudonym Ann Halam. You can find out more about the fiction Gwyneth wrote as Ann Halam here: http://www.gwynethjones.uk/HALAM.htm

It starts out as a weird but seemingly understandable assignment, bodyguarding a mad politician whose keepers have decided to let him “escape” as a sort of reality therapy. But to understand the Senator, Florin must enter the Machine, an reality will never be the same. From now on he’s a Knight of Delusions.

Sealey Head is a small town on the edge of the ocean, a sleepy place where everyone hears the ringing of a bell no one can see. On the outskirts of town is an impressive estate, Aislinn House, where the aged Lady Eglantyne lies dying, and where the doors sometimes open not to its own dusty rooms, but to the wild majesty of a castle full of knights and princesses …

During the wedding festivities of his king, Cyan Dag, a knight of Gloinmere, is sought out by a mysterious bard and told a terrifying tale: that the king has married a false queen – a lie cloaked in ancient and powerful sorcery. Spurred on by his steadfast honour and loyalty, Cyan departs on a dangerous quest to rescue the real queen from her tower prison – to prevent war, and to awaken magic in a land that has lost its way …

Although largely, and unjustly, neglected by a modern audience, Bayley was a hugely influential figure to some of the greats of British SF, such as Michael Moorcock and M. John Harrison. He is perhaps best-known for THE FALL OF CHRONOPOLIS, which is collected in this omnibus, alongside THE SOUL OF THE ROBOT and the extraordinary story collection THE KNIGHTS OF THE LIMITS.

THE FALL OF CHRONOPOLIS: The mighty ships of the Third Time Fleet relentlessly patrolled the Chronotic Empire’s 1,000-year frontier, blotting out an error of history here or there before swooping back to challenge other time-travelling civilisations far into the future. Captain Mond Aton had been proud to serve in such a fleet. But now, falsely convicted of cowardice and dereliction of duty, he has been given the cruellest of sentences: to be sent unprotected into time as a lone messenger between the cruising timeships. After such an inconceivable experience in the endless voids there is only one option left to him. To be allowed to die.

THE SOUL OF THE ROBOT: Jasperodus, a robot, sets out to prove he is the equal of any human being. His furturistic adventures as warrior, tyrant, renegade and statesman eventually lead him back home to the two human beings who created him. Question: Does he have a soul?

THE KNIGHTS OF THE LIMITS: Nine brilliant stories of infinite space and alien consciousness, suffused with a sense of wonder…